Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 113056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Once he was done fact-finding, we’d have to find a way to get her back, knowing Romero knew what we’d done. We didn’t know him. We’d heard he was an ice-cold mother fucker and it stood to reason that he’d want me dead for killing his Uncle Juan Carlos and Dare dead for killing his brother Jesse. The cartel that I had a relationship with from the takedown of the Castillo cartel was something I didn’t relish the idea of calling on again. They’d helped me for what they’d get out of him being gone.
This time, if we needed their help, we’d be indebted to them and that would slow down our plan to distance ourselves from Pop’s world as much as humanly possible without it meaning we had to disappear into thin air to escape that shit.
I didn’t know much about Romero other than the fact he’d inherited his father’s business in pedaling flesh and in dealing guns. And my guys alerted me once or twice to the fact that people had compared us. I didn’t like that. I’d had people keep their ears to the ground, concerned Romero might set his sights on us after Jesse Romero was blown up.
Beyond this shit with Kruna and with Angel’s sister, we also had the launch of Ben Goldberg’s new project, Fete, and smarmy goof Leo Denarda was being a thorn in my side. This guy wanted in on the partnership, but I made my involvement contingent on him being kept out. Of course, he wasn’t happy. But he was a slimy asshole that I refused to associate with.
He didn’t take the news of his exclusion well and now he was trying to screw with us. And what’d started out as an annoyance had become more than a mere pain in my ass; like a mosquito trapped in a dark room with you.
My patience was not generous. If I found myself in a dark room with a mosquito and didn’t flush that fucker out within five minutes, I’d be tempted to blow the whole fucking room up.
My gut told me shit was becoming dangerous. It’d mean more enemies for us if we weren’t really fucking careful. He was already more hassle than he was worth. I’d talked about backing out, but my buddy John Lewis? Johnny needed the launch financially. He needed it to go well. He needed our help and it’d oust Leo once and for all. I had a feeling I’d need his help with some of the other shit on my plate. John was mostly clean but well-connected and respected. He was an ally and he was a good friend. I’d get to help him out and stick it to Leo Denarda at the same time.
I had to accomplish all of this without putting Tia and my unborn baby at risk. Do it all without losing precious time watching her pregnancy bloom. I couldn’t fucking wait to see her huge, to watch her waddle, to feed her pickles and ice cream or whatever she craved.
So far, all she was craving was my cock. And sleep. All she wanted was fucking and sleeping. Talk about a dream come true…
I needed to get through all this shit while keeping my own demons at bay and those demons were nagging at me with all this goddamn stress.
My tattoo. Forgiveness and wisdom. Maybe it wasn’t wise, but I wasn’t feeling all that forgiving right now. Zack had snowed us with this Kruna shit. I told Dare to just keep his girl and forget Kruna existed. Let the lawyers deal with shit. I told John Lewis that Denarda was just an annoying little gnat, but his uncle finally croaked and Denarda somehow had the stones to make a few key moves before word got out about his uncle’s death and so he now had more power.
He’d ruffled feathers throughout Vegas and beyond and that would work to our advantage because we’d have help taking him down if we needed it. And I had a feeling we would.
I just had to be careful what kind of help I solicited because I didn’t want to owe too many of a certain type of people favors.
And it was feeling like it was all coming to a head. Like a zit about to pop. A big zit filled with ugly shit that’d ooze over all of us.
Dare wanted to be clean, wanted us to be legit. For the girls. For our future kids. For the rest of the family. I guess I wanted the same; I don’t even know. I’m still having somewhat of an existential crisis. I don’t like the idea of letting go of the connections, the fire power in case we need it. Shit has been so amped for so long, it feels like we’ll always need it.